Festival Opening Concert - Gloria!
Date
Friday 9th January, 7.00PM
Venue
St Patrick’s Cathedral, 3 Lyons St South, Ballarat 3350
Duration
70 minutes
The festival opens in a blaze of joyful sound with Gloria! — a celebration of radiant polychoral music from the golden age of the early Baroque. In this exhilarating program, the Consort of Melbourne brings vocal harmony to life with intimacy and verve, together with Consortium Viols and the curtal consort Unholy Rackett, supported by a lush continuo of organ, harpsichord and theorbo. Together they fill the space with luminous harmony, dancing rhythms, and the glorious interplay of voices and instruments.
Featuring music by Heinrich Schütz, Hans Leo Hassler and Michael Praetorius, Gloria! revels in the splendour of sound that defined seventeenth-century music — choirs calling to one another across space in cascades of echo and colour, expressing joy, devotion, and human connection.
From stately grandeur to radiant exuberance, Gloria! invites audiences to share in the warmth and optimism of this timeless music. It is a jubilant opening to the festival — a feast of harmony, artistry, and celebration.
After the concert there will be a celebratory supper in the Church Hall, entrance to the supper can be pre-purchased along with your ticket by choosing the ‘Concert Plus Supper’ ticket type when booking.
Featuring music by Heinrich Schütz, Hans Leo Hassler and Michael Praetorius, Gloria! revels in the splendour of sound that defined seventeenth-century music — choirs calling to one another across space in cascades of echo and colour, expressing joy, devotion, and human connection.
From stately grandeur to radiant exuberance, Gloria! invites audiences to share in the warmth and optimism of this timeless music. It is a jubilant opening to the festival — a feast of harmony, artistry, and celebration.
After the concert there will be a celebratory supper in the Church Hall, entrance to the supper can be pre-purchased along with your ticket by choosing the ‘Concert Plus Supper’ ticket type when booking.
Artists
Consort of Melbourne – Vocal Ensemble
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The Consort of Melbourne is Melbourne’s premier vocal ensemble, bringing together the city’s finest chamber voices under the artistic direction of Steven Hodgson. Typically performing a capella (unaccompanied) with one singer per part, The Consort of Melbourne champions historic and contemporary repertoire, bringing 1000 years of vocal harmony to life with an intimacy and verve that leaves audiences spellbound.
Founded in 2008 by Warren Trevelyan-Jones and Peter Tregear, the Consort made its debut that same year and has since established a vibrant presence at the Melbourne Recital Centre while collaborating widely across genres. The ensemble has appeared with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, Song Company, Ludovico’s Band, La Compañia, Genesis Baroque, drag icon Taylor Mac, electronic pioneer Moritz von Oswald, and even the Rolling Stones.
Recent highlights include appearing as soloists in Wynton Marsalis’s monumental first symphony All Rise, touring nationally with Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (2023), a feature concert in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series, Katy Abbott’s Hidden Thoughts I (2024), and the live performance of Julia Holter’s epic score for The Passion of Joan of Arc at the Melbourne International Film Festival (2025). The Consort has also featured on award-winning recordings, including Genevieve Lacey’s Breathing Space (2022), and on the soundtrack of Lorcan Finnegan’s critically acclaimed film The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage (2024).
The ensemble has given landmark Australian premieres, including Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s Eumeralla (2018) and two major works by Wally Gunn and Maria Zajkowski: I heart Artemis (2022) and Moonlite (2025).
Founded in 2008 by Warren Trevelyan-Jones and Peter Tregear, the Consort made its debut that same year and has since established a vibrant presence at the Melbourne Recital Centre while collaborating widely across genres. The ensemble has appeared with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras, Song Company, Ludovico’s Band, La Compañia, Genesis Baroque, drag icon Taylor Mac, electronic pioneer Moritz von Oswald, and even the Rolling Stones.
Recent highlights include appearing as soloists in Wynton Marsalis’s monumental first symphony All Rise, touring nationally with Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (2023), a feature concert in the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chamber Series, Katy Abbott’s Hidden Thoughts I (2024), and the live performance of Julia Holter’s epic score for The Passion of Joan of Arc at the Melbourne International Film Festival (2025). The Consort has also featured on award-winning recordings, including Genevieve Lacey’s Breathing Space (2022), and on the soundtrack of Lorcan Finnegan’s critically acclaimed film The Surfer starring Nicolas Cage (2024).
The ensemble has given landmark Australian premieres, including Deborah Cheetham Fraillon’s Eumeralla (2018) and two major works by Wally Gunn and Maria Zajkowski: I heart Artemis (2022) and Moonlite (2025).
Consortium Viols – Viol Consort
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Consortium unites a band of Australia’s finest viol players to explore the rich repertoire for viol consort. Drawing upon a wealth of professional experience in its players and a deep shared love of the consort experience, Consortium enables Melbourne audiences to experience the beauty and crystaline purity of the traditional repertoire for viol consort alongside exciting avant garde new music being written for this unique medium.
Unholy Rackett – Curtal Consort
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Unholy Rackett is a renaissance wind consort specialising in the curtal or dulcian, the renaissance ancestor of the modern bassoon, as well as the eponymous rackett, a bizarre, extinct double reed instrument.
Unholy Rackett is comprised of Jackie Newcomb, Brock Imison and Simon Rickard, and together they recreate soundscapes familiar to renaissance and baroque ears but sadly neglected by the early music movement today.
Unholy Rackett is comprised of Jackie Newcomb, Brock Imison and Simon Rickard, and together they recreate soundscapes familiar to renaissance and baroque ears but sadly neglected by the early music movement today.
Donald Nicolson – Harpsichord
Nicholas Pollock – Theorbo
